Majority still have holiday shopping to do

TORONTO – A new poll suggests that most Canadians are procrastinators when it comes to holiday shopping.

According to CIBC (TSX:CM), 64 per cent of those recently surveyed said they had yet to finish shopping for holiday gifts this year.

The poll found people between 18 to 34 years of age were the most likely to have put off hitting the mall, with 71 per cent admitting they still have people to cross off their lists.

Meanwhile, those over 55 years old were the most likely to have completed their shopping, although 55 per cent of those polled said they still had gifts to buy and planned to finish up this weekend.

The poll found that those who live in the Prairies were the most behind with their gifts, with 73 per cent saying they still had shopping to do. Respondents in the Atlantic provinces were the most advanced their holiday shopping, with only 58 per cent overall saying they still had more to do.

The survey also found that Canadians have already spent an average of $678 on gifts.

These poll used results were from an online survey conducted from Dec. 12 to 14 with a sample of 1,507 respondents. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.